At the beginning of the year when I watched the famed Top Gear episode when Jeremy tests out the new Fiesta, I was shocked when he compared the little Ford to a Lotus and a VW. For me, Lotus is the holy grail of handling. Lotus is the masters of making things go around corners. Lotus is the king of doing more with less. I just could not believe that the company that builds the F-150 could build a car that handles and feels like a Lotus.
Ford is a huge company, with all sorts of tricks up their sleeves. It was 40 years ago this past June that Ford dominated leMans with a 1-2-3 victory over those red cars from Maranello. It is that same company that used to race in F1, and most recently built the Ford GT. When you get outside the United States, Ford builds some of the very best. Sadly, all of those great things have stayed in Europe while Americans get ho-hum products that are just ok. As I am watching Top Gear I began to think “my goodness, why don’t they bring the Fiesta here”, and then I find out that they are.
I have been driving the Fiesta for over 2 months now, and I have begun to push the car a little harder around corners. What I am finding is that the Fiesta really is Lotus-like in its handling. The Fiesta feels light on its feet, responds instantly to steering commands, and seems to stop like it has 6-piston Brembo’s on the front. Ford really pulled a rabbit out of its hat with the Fiesta. They also took something from the Lotus playbook, in that Ford made the Fiesta lighter. Each year, cars seem to get heavier and heavier, requiring bigger engines, bigger wheels, bigger brakes, but no real gain in performance. The Mustang is a great example; it just got too big and heavy. In the eyes of many Americans, big and heavy is safe. Probably why a NASCAR is almost 4000 pounds and a F1 car is about a ¼ of that. The Fiesta in no way sacrifices safety with its lightweight, instead it adds things like knee airbags and a boron-steel a-pillar structure.
Weight is the killer for any good handling car, and the heavier the car is, the more it needs added on to it make it handle well. There is also a penalty from weight in that the more the car weighs, the harder it is to make it change direction. When I go to the track with my V8 Mustang, I am shocked at how quickly I am passed by 4 cylinder Lotuses. Clearly, they have a formula that works. The Fiesta uses that same formula of lightweight, high strength, and outstanding handling. I am guessing that the Fiesta will do very well on the track, since it seems to handle excellent on the street. Jeremy was right; there is a Lotus quality in the way the Fiesta handles. Did you ever think a company that builds trucks could make a B-segment car that handles like a Lotus?
I think you should think of Ford USA and Ford of Europe as two completely different companies.
So there’s the company that builds trucks and ruined the Focus and doesn’t believe in small diesels.
And there’s the company that doesn’t know how to build a proper pick-up truck (Google Ford P100) or replace the 80’s mid-luxury class Scorpio (Ford EU tried to import the Lincoln LS, which bombed as the average European has no connection with Lincoln) but knows anything about how to tweak chassis to make winners!
Top Gear is more about entertainment than being a motoring show. So let’s view how rival Fifth Gear reviews it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-0dCUiC_m8
http://fwd.five.tv/cars/supermini
(together with the MINI, both are the only ones with 5 stars! Chevy Aveo? 2 stars!)
I’m still waiting for Fifth Gears Tiff Needell (who used to present Top Gear before Clarkson & co did) to trash the Fiesta! He’s a pretty good race driver!
I believe you recently stated in one of your blogs that Ford is having to make the front end heavier on the U.S. Fiesta in order to meet gov’t crash standards. Won’t this compromise the handling somewhat of the U.S. Fiesta? A concern I have is how long they are going to make the front end. If it sticks out as much as on the U.S. Fit then from the profile it won’t look very appealing.
IIRC, this Fiesta shares its platform with the Mazda B. I remember reading about the Mazda last year, and how they’d deliberately made it smaller and lighter than the previous generation, and thinking “if the new Fiesta builds on this it’s going to be something special”.
I test-drove a ~2000 Fiesta some years ago and loved the handling then, so it has plenty to live up to. I think for some years now Ford have held the handling crown that Peugeot had in the late 80s/early 90s.
(www.parkers.co.uk lists the 1.6 Zetec S as only 970kg, which is pretty amazing for a modern car.)
On another note: since I’ve been following a few Fiesta Movement blogs, I’ve started seeing them everywhere in my bit of England! They’re clearly selling well, credit crunch or not.
Although the Fiesta is quite good, a Lotus is in a complete different league. I’ts a mid-engined rear wheel drive sportscar, with an aluminium frame and plastic body.
Then again, try to fit four people and luggage in a Lotus and you’ll see that owning a Lotus is a different compromise.
There is no doubt the Lotus is in a different league than the Fiesta, but where they are similair is that they both remain lightweight and focus on handling. Too many cars become very heavy and just keep adding power instead of working the suspension so that the driver can use the available power.